


The Tale of the Hooded Ghost

by clover71



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Community: picfor1000, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-06 15:53:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3140021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clover71/pseuds/clover71
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atobe thought Kirihara and his stupid ghost story were insufferable but he was thrown for a loop when the others had started claiming that they had seen a hooded ghost lurking in the U-17 camp dormitory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of the Hooded Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> \- This is written for ['A Picture is Worth 1000 Words'](http://picfor1000.livejournal.com/) challenge in LiveJournal.  
> \- [This is the photo](https://www.flickr.com/photos/118794413@N02/13899126435/in/photostream/lightbox/) assigned to me. While I know the real meaning behind it following this round's theme 'Unlucky You,' that's not the concept I followed. I merely used the picture as an inspiration and wrote the first story that came into mind.  
> \- The picture prompt I was given reminded me of a particular scene in episode 8, season 1 of _The New Prince of Tennis,_ the one where Kirihara thought he saw the rumored 'ghost of the deserter' that haunted the U-17 camp.  
> .  
> .  
>  **Disclaimer:** I do not own Prince of Tennis and its characters. Copyright belongs to its creator, Konomi Takeshi. This fic is written for non-profitable purpose.  
> .  
> .
> 
> * * *

It was Kirihara's fault, really. Stupid, stupid Kirihara. He was the one who started this… this absurdity. Not that Atobe believed in ghosts anyway, but it was extremely annoying to hear the little devil narrate the same story about the ghost of the deserter over and over. Now it was stuck in his head, damn it!

"Tough night?" Tezuka asked when he joined Atobe for breakfast one morning.

"Didn't get enough sleep. You have Kirihara to thank for that." Atobe brought his tea cup to his lips to keep profanities from spilling out.

Tezuka frowned, his hand pausing over a plate of croissants. "Atobe. You're not cheating on me, are you?"

Atobe sputtered, spitting tea back into his cup. How unsightly he must be. "What? Of course not!" He snorted, losing another point in posh behavior all in one morning. "What I meant was I kept hearing Kirihara's silly ghost story in my head so I couldn't sleep well. And you wouldn't be too suspicious if only you had agreed to share a room with me."

One corner of Tezuka's mouth quirked into an almost smile. "Like we'd be able to focus on training if that were the case."

"Oh please. Will you two refrain from talking about your sexual endeavors on the breakfast table?" Yuushi claimed the seat across Tezuka. "I don’t want to lose my appetite."

Apparently, seeing ghosts seemed to have become a trend in the U-17 camp because a week later, Hirakoba Rin came running across the dormitory hallway, stammering out something about a hooded ghost. "I… I saw him. I heard the high school guys talking about it and I saw him!" he said, waving his arms frantically that Kite had to restrain him.

"Calm down, Hirakoba-kun," Kite demanded in his captain voice but it was useless. 

"I swear, I saw him! He was huge and was wearing a raincoat and holding an umbrella and… and…." Rin's face had gone white as a sheet. 

"Well, it is raining outside," Fuji pointed out the obvious. 

Atobe had heard enough so he made a move to leave but his legs stilled when Rin spoke again. "He… he took someone with him." The look of horror was clear on Rin's face.

"Took who?" someone – Yukimira probably – asked. 

Rin shook his head. "I didn't see. I was so frightened I ran back here in a hurry."

It was barely an hour later that they discovered Marui was actually missing. His roommate, Jirou, didn't know where he'd gone. Not like Jirou was ever aware of anything. 

Marui did turn up the next morning though, looking as if he'd been abducted by aliens. He didn't talk much and stayed in their room for most of the day but he was back in his usual self the day after.

Two nights later, Kikumaru came stumbling into the players' lounge, struggling to catch his breath as if he'd ran a mile, saying, "Saw him! The hooded ghost. Took Shiraishi," in between strangled gasps.

Shiraishi was found in the breakfast room the next morning, staring into space. He was smiling at least. Fuji said he didn't speak until late that afternoon, only to ask about the schedule of matches for the next day. 

The story about the hooded ghost didn't stop there. No it didn't. Every other night, someone would claim they had seen the same entity and that this 'ghost' had taken one of them. 

And just like Marui and Shiraishi, whoever was taken came back the next morning looking as if life had been sucked out of him.

Yuushi was the unfortunate one to have seen the so-called hooded ghost on the twelfth night it appeared. Unlike the other witnesses though, Yuushi remained calm and collected even as he breezed into the game room and walked up to Atobe, saying, "The hooded ghost is back. He had taken Tezuka."

All hell broke loose then. Atobe was on the verge of calling for a search party when a warm hand touched his shoulder. It was Marui.

"Tezuka will be fine, trust me, Atobe-kun," Marui uttered, blowing on his gum and letting it pop back into his mouth before walking away.

True to what Marui said, Tezuka was fine when he came back the next morning, earlier than the others did before him. While there might not be any noticeable change in his demeanor since he was as stoic as ever, Atobe knew something sat heavy in his mind. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't squeeze anything out of his boyfriend. Tezuka just soothed him with a soft gaze and said, "You'll find out soon."

Atobe did find out soon. It was two nights later when he was walking back to the dorms alone from a late night jog when he spotted a figure near the building entrance. It was a man, bear-like in stature, and was wearing a raincoat and holding an umbrella over his head. It wasn't even raining. 

He felt weird, like he'd been placed under hypnosis that when the hooded man beckoned him to follow, he did without question. When they finally arrived at a derelict court just outside the camp's premises, Atobe understood why the others who'd been taken before him were left stunned.

The next morning, he walked into the dormitory to find Tezuka waiting at the lobby. 

 

*

 

"So, you're telling me that this hooded ghost is actually one of the coaches?" Kirihara's voice echoed across the lounge where most players were relaxing after a long day of training. 

"Yeah. Apparently, our teammates whom we thought had been sent home are actually training in the mountain and the hooded ghost, who isn't really a ghost, is their coach," Shiraishi explained. 

"And to see how much the mountain group had improved, Coach Mifune would come here to choose an opponent for a practice match." Atobe recalled his resounding loss against Hiyoshi the night before. Though his pride had been wounded, he admitted, "They've really gotten stronger."

.

.


End file.
